Chinese-English Translation · Composition

Jay Chou: Love Confession / 告白氣球 (English translation)

This is my non-literal (but not quite idiomatic) translation of Jay Chou’s song “Love confession”. The lyrics have a couple of references to places in France, which I had to look up. Overall though, it’s not a hard song to learn (unlike, say, “What Kind of Man” from the same album), and is super sweet~

塞納河畔 左岸的咖啡
Coffee on the left bank of the Seine[The Seine is a river in France]

我手一杯 品嚐你的美
Mug in hand, tasting your beauty

留下唇印的嘴
Where your mouth left a mark

花店玫瑰 名字寫錯誰
[I bought] roses at the florist, but they spelt your name wrong[名字寫錯誰 is not usual syntax for spoken Mandarin, but could literally be interpreted as “Who wrote the name wrong?”. Also, rhetorical questions involving 誰 are quite common in Chinese lyrics, possibly because -ei is a convenient rhyme.]

告白氣球 風吹到對街
I wrote “I love you” on a balloon and the wind carried it across the street[告白氣球 is literally “confession balloon”, which does not constitute idiomatic English]

微笑在天上飛
My smile was floating in the sky

你說你有點難追 想讓我知難而退
You said you were hard to please; you wanted to let me know it would be hard, so that I would give up[難追 is literally “hard to chase”]

禮物不需挑最貴 只要香榭的落葉
You don’t need the most expensive presents, just a fallen leaf from the Avenue des Champs-Élysées[The full name for 香榭 is 香榭麗舍大道]